Black Friday and brand protection

 

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving, which is a US national holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November each year. People tend to take the following Friday off to have a long weekend, and what better way to spend that day than browsing shops?

 

This custom was first noted in the 1950s in Philadelphia, and the term “Black Friday” was also coined there. Savvy shop-owners realized the opportunity and began to offer special discounts for that day. The event grew bigger year by year, soon crossing over to other countries and continents. And the rest, as we say, is history.

 

 

A crowded shopping arcade

 

 

Black Friday statistics

Although the name was originally given by the Philadelphia police struggling with the crowds of shoppers and tourists on this specific day, retailers have later given another meaning to the term “Black Friday.” Accordingly, this is the day they can finally write black numbers indicating profit instead of red implying loss.

 

In other words, Black Friday is the day when they earn a large part of their annual profits. No surprise there. Black Friday generated $9.12 billion of revenue in 2022 which is an increase of 2.3% over 2021. 

 

Adobe predicts that the holiday season will bring in $211.7 billion in revenue. The actual figures will largely depend on the circumstances surrounding Black Friday and many other uncertainties that seem to plague us these years.

 

 

Let’s take a look at the most important advantages of Black Friday for brands. Due to the large quantity of shoppers, brands have a higher exposure to consumers and thus a bigger chance of making new sales. And if you play your cards right, these shoppers can be turned from one-time buyers into loyal customers.

 

Although customer-retention isn’t exactly high when it comes to Black Friday shoppers (in fact, 64% of retailers report losing them after that one purchase), you don’t have to give up these one-time shoppers as customers.

 

With the right nurturing techniques, including follow-up, fast customer service, and retargeting, these customers have a much higher chance of returning to your brand and buying from you again.

 

But unfortunately, opportunities are not the only thing Black Friday has in store for brands.

 

 

Due to the sheer size of shopping crowds, there’s a much higher chance of fake or grey market products slipping through the cracks. This is especially true for online marketplaces that are already infested by these IP-infringing products that hurt your brand.

 

With impatient customers looking for the best deal and lower-than-usual prices offered by virtually everyone, it’s even harder to recognize problematic listings. Which is exactly why sellers with bad intentions have a field day on Black Friday.

 

All these factors together have an amplifying effect on the harm that IP-infringing products do to brands. You could suffer significant losses of revenue, customers, and even your brand’s reputation, all within a couple of days.

 

Luckily, you don’t have to take it as an inevitable fact of life.

 

 

There’s an easy answer for that: like on any other day. With a comprehensive brand protection program in place, fraudsters won’t stand a chance at stealing your customers, revenue and reputation.

 

globaleyez’s services are aimed at detecting and removing IP-infringing content that hurts our clients on Black Friday and the rest of the year. Our services complement each other and create a perfect shield against IP-infringements both off- and online.

 

Our marketplace monitoring service detects fraudulent listings on over 150 online marketplaces all over the world, regardless if they advertise fake or grey market products, or feature any other type of IP-infringements. Finding and removing these listings diminishes the supply of infringing products, which in turn creates a flawless marketplace presence for your brand.

 

Fraudsters often use images to sell their products. These images may be stolen from your brand, or similar pictures can be taken to fool customers. Whatever the case, our image monitoring service finds these pictures and thus contributes to detecting and eliminating fraudulent offerings online.

 

Fakeshops tend to use domains that are similar to your brand’s name to entrap customers. Our domain monitoring service detects these domains and ensures their swift removal.

 

As you may see, all of our services lead to enforcing our clients’ rights, which means the fast removal of any infringing content from the internet. With court-admissible documentation that includes timestamped screenshots, we ensure that, should you wish to do so, you can take the fraudsters to court and may win back the revenue you lost.

 

Don’t ignore the dangers that Black Friday (and any other day) poses to your brand’s IP-rights. With powerful software tools and intuitive human expertise, globaleyez is ready to tackle whatever IP challenges you face.

 

 

Contact us and let us know all about them.